Chapter 215: Dread

Chapter 215: Dread

Jon and his four soldiers approached us in our hiding places, seemingly fully aware of our location. Or, I didn't think any of them could see us, since none of them were looking directly at us. Rather, they were simply walking in our directions with clear purpose. I just assumed that purpose was “let’s go kill Arlan and his pals.” At the very least, they clearly knew something was over here.

It was only a matter of time before they found us if we kept hiding, so we’d have to take the initiative. Better to spring a half-revealed ambush than to not spring one at all. I spoke quickly with Erani and Ainash through our mental link, unfortunately leaving Sylvie out of it, and we figured out a basic plan of action. We’d wait until Jon was in range of Crippling Chill—which would also put him well into range of Erani’s Firebolt—and then both attack at the same time. I had Index carefully watching distances so she could warn us if he was ever close to getting within his fifteen-pace kill range.The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l--B1n.

Sylvie slowly, carefully crept away from them, positioned far enough ahead that they’d pass her on their way to us. I watched as she expertly maneuvered behind trees, using the tall grass to keep out of sight while also somehow not causing enough of a disturbance to the grass for our enemies to notice. It reminded me of the fact that, despite my Level and the amount of combat experience I had, I still definitely wasn’t an expert. Really, a couple months ago, I’d have still been classified as an amatuer even when it came to swordfighting. And now I could barely even use that training. I had basically no formalized education on how to fight with my current skillset. And Sylvie, maneuvering through the brush in such a skillful manner she made it seem like nothing definitely exposed the fact that I was lacking in any sort of teaching from a more skilled professional.

Now, I still had some skill—I didn’t think it was egotistical to say something like that. Really, the best way to learn something was to be forced into a situation where you had to figure it out, and I felt like a Demon invasion, constantly fighting for my life against more and more powerful threats, was a pretty good way to force me to learn. But still, I’d have liked to have someone to teach me the tricks of my Class. Though, Erani’s help with general advice regarding Spellcasting was certainly helpful.

It was with that doubt in my mind that I watched Jon and his soldiers advance, thankfully not taking notice of Sylvie. Or, if they did notice her, they seemed to consider whatever was going on in our direction to be more important.

I waited patiently for him to get forty paces away, where Crippling Chill would become active. Due to what was effectively a hard limit on how close we could let him get, there were a good few Spells that were locked off from use on Jon. Noxious Grasp and Sanguine Bond were the obvious ones, but Curse of Echoes also had a fairly short range at just ten paces, so I couldn’t use it on him, either. And Ray of Frost’s twenty-five pace range would also force me to get uncomfortably close to use; if he had a high enough Dexterity or any decent movement ability, he could rush another ten paces closer to get into his range and kill me.

“Few paces to go,” Index said, bringing my attention back to reality. Just a couple more steps, and...

You have cursed Level 28 Cleric with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1998.

Instantly, both Erani and I shot off our Spells in unison, with Jon lurching over from the unexpected debuff just as his eyes widened as he looked up at the Firebolt being launched at him.

An explosion rocked my senses as I leapt to my feet. Jon stumbled back, and the soldiers he brought with him were actually knocked much further back than he was by the blast. Seemed like his Stats were significantly above theirs, if he could take a full-on hit like that.

“Go!” he shouted back to his men as he, too, charged forth at us. I could see several effects simultaneously take place on all five of them—a glowing halo around their heads, a wreath of white light around their bodies, bright yellow flames behind their eyes, plus a half-dozen more changes such that I wasn’t sure which came from their own individual buffs and which were just two different effects coming from the same Spell. Either way, I didn’t like how much he was powering these guys—and himself—up.

Another Firebolt came from Erani as I continued with my own Spells, casting Crippling Chill on the other four soldiers that were noticeably lagging behind Jon’s charge. Erani and I were both backing away from him, and I watched as her Firebolt’s explosion blasted against Jon’s skin, an explosion enveloping him...and he continued charging, as though he hadn’t felt the force at all. Shit.

Besides, the extra triggers helped out with Cumulative Catastrophe; my boost was already approaching 25%, increasing all of my debuffs by quite the significant margin. Hopefully, even if the damage was being diminished by Jon’s Spells, the Stamina drain would get to him soon.

So, we were left effectively just sprinting through the fiel;ds surrounding the outpost, looking back and shooting Jon with Spells whenever possible. I was just glad he didn’t seem to have many good ranged options, himself. His face was one of deadly calm, mouth open to take heavy breaths as he chased, but otherwise betraying no emotion except pure determination. We ducked through the hills that surrounded us, sprinting through valleys and behind fallen stones by the mountains, effectively running in circles around the guard outpost. Part of me considered running down into the mountain pass itself, retreading our old ground, but that felt like an unnecessary risk with the monsters that roamed through there.

Though, it seemed like a risk would have to be taken, because Jon was gaining on us, despite our attempts to prevent that. Now running past the front of the outpost, I turned to see a Firebolt Erani had launched blast against Jon’s body, the force throwing debris away from him as he braced himself against the impact.

We took the opportunity to keep moving and regain a bit of our lead, clambering over a mound of stone and leaping down behind it—not before I shot him with another Ray of Frost, bringing my Mana down below 1500. I’d been keeping Gravity Well active this whole time, which was quite the costly endeavor Mana-wise, but definitely worth it when it came to slowing him down.

Just as we were about to keep running off, though, the door of the guard outpost burst open, revealing the boot that had just kicked it off its hinges. It stepped back down on the ground, and Ripley walked out of the building.

“Jon!” she shouted. “What are you doing here?!”

“Oh, Ripley, it’s you,” Jon said, standing up straight and turning to face her. He was breathing heavily. “I was looking for you.”

Erani and I took this opportunity to retreat back further away from them, sneaking away as Jon and Ripley spoke.

“You’re here for me?” she asked. Then she nodded over in my direction. “Not him?”

“Both,” he said. “Well, I’ll deal with you later. Don’t want the fugitive getting—wait, what?”

Ripley frowned at Jon interrupting himself. I watched him, too, recognizing his behavior from the previous timeline—he was speaking to that woman in his ear, Asmo.

He frowned, listening to her speak. “Call a...really? Well. I suppose you’re the boss.” Jon turned to face me, shouting out, “Fugitive, I’d like to call a ceasefire! You don’t move from that spot, and I won’t make chase. We will resume this later, once I’m done speaking with Ripley.”

I blinked. What?